Football: Wright aims double blast at Taylor

Arsenal. . . 2

Everton. . . 0

OF ALL the messages the England manager, Graham Taylor, receives this weekend, the one from Ian Wright will be the most perplexing. Here, in a match that had drifted into indifference, immediately after half-time Paul Merson offered Arsenal variation and originality and Wright added two goals, the second of which will go down in Highbury folklore.

Yet even the Everton manager, Howard Kendall, whose envy for Wright's talent was transparent, pointed out that scoring astonishing goals in the Premiership is not the same as performing similarly well on the international stage. Taylor is aware of that, especially in his experience of Wright.

At half-time the match was so evenly balanced, with nothingness on both sides of the scale, that Everton were beginning to be optimistic. Their brief, but surprising, unbeaten run had been broken on Wednesday at Newcastle but they had done enough in a short time to cause a flicker of hope even among the most gloomy of their followers - those who predicted relegation when Kendall let Peter Beardsley go.

An injury to Everton's captain, Dave Watson, left them struggling to shore up the centre of their defence, and in the end it showed. Arsenal, after three wins, again felt able to start without Merson whose England future has seemed to wither each time George Graham has told him he could do better and promptly failed to give him the chance by leaving him out.

Since the word is that Taylor is looking to a big bruiser to play up front against Poland, it was incumbent on Wright to impress. In an opening half-hour of otherwise sunny indifference, he finally brought out a fine stretching save from Neville Southall. Eddie McGoldrick's corner had been turned across goal by Kevin Campbell. Wright had to turn sharply to create space and his shot required all of Southall's experience to stop.

That apart, the quality of football in the first half was abysmal, which made Merson's appearance for the second all the more welcome. Within a minute Ray Parlour had infiltrated the Everton penalty area but when he fell over the ball rolled loose. But Merson seemed so surprised that he failed to get proper direction on his shot from an unmarked situation near the far post, which he hit.

At least that brought life to the game and only a minute later Wright confirmed his appetite and showed a neatness of touch in the penalty area that in an England shirt too often lets him down. A long clearance from David Seaman was turned across the penalty area to the far side by Campbell. Suddenly Wright was in a gap of his own making. He controlled the ball competently and blasted his short past the hitherto unbeatable Southall.

The arrival of Merson, with his ability to draw defenders on and cut through their ranks with inventive passes, straightaway added a dimension that had been totally absent. It caused Everton's defence to retreat and become less able to concentrate on barring Wright's way to goal. What is more, Merson was allowed to play centrally behind Wright and Campbell. It seems that one of the problems Graham has with Merson is that the player himself sees no international future in remaining predominantly a left- sided midfield attacker. Yesterday, his position seemed something of a compromise but one the manager chose, so perhaps Merson will get his way.

By slipping into predatory situations, Merson increasingly took attention away from Wright who nevertheless had to show enormous confidence and ambition to score Arsenal's second goal and one of the best he has contributed at Highbury. Again the situation appeared out of what seemed a fairly harmless attack started by another long clearance from Seaman. But when Wright was faced with what at first looked to be an awkward ball to control, he made light of it. The ball seemed to float from one foot to the other as Matthew Jackson attempted to ruin the juggler's art. Southall took steps to intervene but Wright timed a little lob to perfection. Can he do it at Wembley?

Arsenal (4-1-3-2): D Seaman; M Keown, T Adams, A Linighan, N Winterburn; J Jensen; E McGoldrick, R Parlour, D Hillier (P Merson 45 min); K Campbell, I Wright. Subs not used: A Miller (gk), I Selley. Manager: G Graham.

Everton (4-4-2): N Southall; M Jackson, P Holmes, G Ablett, A Hinchliffe; G Stuart (P Radosavljevic, 59 min), B Horne, J Ebbrell, M Ward; T Cottee (S Barlow 73 min), P Rideout. Sub not used: J Kearton (gk). Manager: H Kendall.

Referee: K Burge (Tonypandy).

Goals: Wright (1-0, 49 min); Wright (2-0, 79 min).